The bodies of three children of a Baptist church elder in Beslan, Russia, have been identified and buried, a month after a Sept. 3 massacre that that left 331 people dead, many of them students.
Three children of elder Taimuraz Totiev—Albina, Larisa and Boris—were buried last Sunday, Paul Montacute of Baptist World Aid reported Thursday. Montacute met recently with Peter Mitskevich, vice president of the Russian Baptist Union, and Yevgeniy Zhigulin of Mission Vera, both of whom have been busy counseling and caring for families since the crisis began.
Only one of Totiev’s five children, daughter Madina, survived the tragedy.
One daughter of Totiev’s brother, Pastor Sergey Totiev, Dzerassa, is still missing. The pastor’s 8-year-old daughter, Anya, was killed and a son, Azum, was seriously injured, according to earlier reports.
Baptist World Aid, the relief arm of the Baptist World Alliance, continues to receive funds to assist with ministry to children and families. Montacute said BWAid has pledged to support the cost of a coordinator for physical and emotional needs, which will go on for months or even years.
“While the tragedy has moved off the radar screens of many, the real horror is only just beginning,” Montacute said in a news release.
Donations for the relief effort may be sent to “Beslan Appeal,” Montacute said.
Also on Thursday, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship announced a $10,000 donation for humanitarian efforts in Sudan, where a civil war has killed 50,000 civilians and displaced more than a million persons in the last 18 months.
The Atlanta-based CBF will work in distributing food and non-food items through World Vision, said David Harding, CBF’s international coordinator for emergency response. The relief effort had been postponed to allow for the situation to stabilize under an Aug. 31 deadline set by the United Nations, but CBF decided it did not want to wait any longer because of the suffering of Sudanese refugees in Chad and those displaced within Sudan.
